Inara
Lore Description "This place was once peaceful, and it shall be so again."' ' Origin During the times of chaos and the Age of Dragons, it seemed the gods and goddesses of the World cared very little for their creations. Those who prayed to the gods rarely found solace in their pleas. Little did they know, the gods were at war. The Abyss and the Pyre fought to gain control of the world and in their battles, the planet suffered, but no god more than the Mother. The very embodiment of nature and the planet itself, the Mother stood valiantly against the havoc wreaked by the Pyre and the Abyss. While both she and her creations did their best to defend against the destruction, it was quickly becoming a losing battle for while the gods raged above and below, the dragons ushered in the times of Chaos. When all hope seemed lost, the Mother gave the power of life and healing to the Guardians of the forest, who in turn taught this power to gifted individuals to help withstand the tide. Finally, when the Abyss retreated, and the Pyre ascended once more, the Warders and Dragonslayers banded together for a time to end the Reign of Chaos. The losses of the Mother's creations were great and of the Great Tree Spirits, only one remained. With peace entering the world once more, the Warders tamed the dragons while the Dragonslayers finished off the last of the rebellious beasts. Fearing for the life of her beloved Tree Spirit, the Mother sent him to slumber as well until a time when the Wild would be threatened once more. At the end, the Mother herself, finally slept, drawing her form into a sacred grove to watch over her Tree Spirit. It was not long after, as the dragons diminished and the Warders were lost to history, the Goblins came. Filling the gap that the dragons left behind, the goblins grew and multiplied in strength until they became a Scourge, a Blight upon the land. Fearing another age of chaos and destruction, the people formed together with the aid of the elves and became known as the Paladins, under the banner of their first leader, the elf known as Vanya. The goblins, however, were so great in number that even with the combined might of the Paladins, all hope seemed lost. Vanya, sought the help of the Wild and through prayer and the magic of the sacred crystals, woke the Mother, the ancient deity of Nature personified. Feeling compassion on their plight and fearing the chaos that she fought so hard against in the times of old, she imparted to them a portion of her power of life infused into a green crystal. She did so, however, with the promise that Vanya and the Paladins would return the crystal to her and the mountain once more. ' With this newfound power, the Vanya took the crystal and climbed an ancient mountain that was sacred to the elves said to carry the soul of the world itself in the times before time. When prehistoric behemoths roamed the land and the great tectonic creatures helped the gods to shape the planet itself raising the land from the depths. Through the magic of the green crystal, she infused the power of life into the very rocks around her. The ground shook and from the Mountain, the stagalla emerged, given thought, voice, and consciousness. Men and women of stone, they were dedicated to the Mother and through the crystal, they were oath-bound to the Paladin Leader, Vanya. Two of the strongest and most pure of the stagalla, stepped forwards towards Vanya and gave their oath to defend the Realm from the Goblin incursion. In that moment, Inara and Terminus were soon joined as one, husband and wife and leader of the new people known as the stagalla. As the war raged on, there were none who fought as fiercely and as loyally as Inara and her beloved Terminus. As a result, throughout the Realm, Inara became known as the Stone Warden with her husband Terminus being known as the Stone Warrior. Together they led their people and the Paladins against the goblin scourge. Like a leaf against stone, the goblins fell by the thousands at the hands of the stagalla and after a time, the goblins retreated and the scourge ended. Having fulfilled their oath to the Paladins and especially to Vanya, the stagalla, led by Inara and Terminus, chose to return to the mountain once more. As the Mother had done, so to would their people sleep within the mountain for a season. A sleep that would last centuries. Once the stagalla returned and began to slumber, Vanya took the green crystal and rather than return it to the Mother, she held onto the magical oath fearing that one day they may need the stagalla once more. As the Mother had said, she was to return the crystal to her, after the Oath had been fulfilled. However, “after” could be defined for as long a time as Vanya and her ancestors saw fit. Eventually, she passed it down to her daughter and from there, through generations until the time that they would once again need them. '''The Great Crystal War and the Reawakening' Oathbound magic is undiminished by time and while the legacy of the stagalla turned to myth and folklore, the descendants of the first Elven Leader of the Paladins knew the truth and passed down the knowledge and words of the Oath throughout the centuries. When the latest in the line of succession, Valera, took up cause against the Magistrate, she formed the Resistance and revolted against the crystal ban enacted by the Magistrate. While she had already gained many followers, Valera knew that against the Magistrate, the Resistance would soon wither and crumble without help. It was in that moment that she was reminded of the ancient green crystal and the sacred Oath that her ancestor Vanya, the first Paladin made with the Mother centuries ago. With this knowledge in hand, Valera traveled to the sacred mountain and resting place of the stagalla and as her ancestor did so long ago, she made the treacherous climb. Once she reached the top, she repeated the words of the remembered Oath and placed the green crystal against the stone. She then called out to the Mountain and through its power, the stagalla once again, arose. The first to arise were Inara and Terminus, followed by their people, one by one. Hand in hand, they looked to Valera and both bent the knee as the power of the Oath flowed through them once more. Valera called upon them to act. The forces of the Magistrate were too strong and she recounted the many atrocities and the unjust crystal ban. Under the dread tyrant, Magister Karne, she claimed that the world would suffer as it did during the Goblin scourge. Inara and Terminus were both unmoved by her demands however. Honor-bound to the Oath, they were originally created to defend the Wild against the Goblins. Raising arms against the human-led Magistrate was not something that they or their people were capable of doing as proposed by the Oath. They apologized and were planning to slumber once more when Valera picked up the green crystal and recounted the ancient promise once more. While they honor-bound through magic to fight only the Goblin Scourge, they were also bound to follow the command of Valera, the descendant of Vanya. Reluctantly, they agreed to follow her, but it would NOT mean the creation of a stagalla army. Sacrificing their will, both Inara and Terminus struck the accord that only they would join the Resistance’s cause. While Valera had intended to descend the mountain with a grand stagalla army, she gave in and eventually and agreed to the terms. The two stagalla bid farewell to their people who had awoken and promised to protect them by going. Valera knew that while she had the two stagalla Oathbound to the cause of the Resistance, she still needed their unwavering loyalty. Afterall, what good would it do to have a Stone Warden and Warrior fight against people that they did not wish to fight. As such, Valera took them both to see the destruction and atrocities enacted in the name of the Magistrate, carefully selecting the aftermath of battles they had lost, and showing them her view of the "tyranny of the Magistrate." She took them to their starving camps and Resistance villages now cut off from the supply of the Magistrate due to their cause. Upon seeing the damage and suffering wrought by the Crystal War, Inara and Terminus were moved with compassion and reminded of the Goblin Scourge. They then pledged their fealty to Valera, determined to put an end to the Magistrate once and for all. The Fall of Terminus With the two stagalla joining the Resistance, the champions were invigorated. No longer were their battles one-sided in favor of the armies of House Aico and Karne. Magistrate soldiers fell by the hundreds against the mighty axe of Terminus, and together with Inara, the two were unbreakable. Karne knew that they needed something and once he heard of the Resistance gathering in the South, he hired the Bounty Hunter Kinessa to scout whether the stagalla were coming as well. Kinessa took the money and with the promise that she would not engage, with a few extra bribes of course, she soon returned and reported that Inara and Terminus were marching against them. Karne then requested of Lian, the newly appointed Scion, an army of House Aico, led by the Primus Khan himself. He also sent Ash, the War Machine to lead his own armies. As the armies of the Resistance entered the battlefield, they found the countless numbers of Magistrate soldiers and armies of House Aico before them. The Resistance soldiers would have lost heart if it were not for the determination of the Stone Warden and her husband who charged forwards. Inara engaged Khan in a fierce battle that shook the earth and Terminus charged forwards, into the fray, tearing through Magistrate soldiers as if they were paper. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion and Ash stood triumphantly over the fallen stagalla warrior. The light left Terminus’s eyes as pieces of him crumbled to the ground. Inara felt her heart pierce and she turned to where her husband once stood. She fell to the ground and mourned her husband. With their prize warrior defeated, the Resistance armies began to retreat and Inara was not even afforded the luxury of retrieving her husband’s body as she was forced back. The battle won, the Magistrate army took the corpse of Terminus and brought it to their Sage, Torvald. Meanwhile Inara returned to her people for a short time, to tell them of the fall of Terminus and to mourn her husband’s loss. Present Day After mourning her husband’s loss, Inara returned to the Resistance Army once again. For a time, it seemed her loss was too great to bear and the Resistance battles suffered because of it. After one particularly sore battle, she thought her eyes deceived her as she witnessed Terminus lumber onto the battlefield. It had to have been a dream though. That dream soon became a nightmare as she witnessed the great stone behemoth raise his axe against the Resistance Army. The Magistrate brought Terminus back, but this time, they were controlling him. The Resistance Armies fell back once more. Re-living the horror of seeing her fallen husband fight under the Magistrate command, Inara’s resolve strengthened once more. She would find a way to defeat the golem that was once her husband, and give him the death and final rest that he deserved. Characteristics "I am immovable." Inara is a powerfully defensive stagalla with the grayish skin typical of her people. Like the stone from which she came, she in unmoving and unwavering in the defense of her allies and there are few who have stood against her who live to tell the tale. Inara bears a stone spear as her weapon of choice. From it, she fires stone projectiles in bursts at very high speeds capable of piercing even some of the heaviest of armors. She commands the rocks around her and often, they float around her magically, bending and forming to her will, even growing to create a field that extends beyond her and slams powerfully into the Earth hindering the movement of any who are within its reach. With her magic, she is also capable of conjuring a large stone wall from the Earth to protect herself or her allies. She often calls upon the power of the Mother herself to strengthen and harden her body against attack making her a physical powerhouse against her enemies and with the power of the Mother, she can create an immense shockwave that emanates from her spear and paralyzes anyone nearby.' ' ' Physical Description "We will stand strong, like a mountain in the storm." As a stagalla, Inara is physically capable of immense feats of strength, yet retains the graceful, smooth features of polished stone. Her golden yellow eyes rest within a smooth, yet angular face. Many claim that she almost glows with the radiance of the Mother herself and some believe her to be the Mother personified. Her hair is long and braided tightly in thick, heavy strands, yet rest gracefully on her head. With her powerful body as her main defenses, Inara chooses not to adorn herself with heavy armors, and instead bears a simple chest wrap, and long skirt, typical of the female stagalla with her rank of her people. Finally, she carries the life of the Mother wherever she goes always with a living flower in her hair.' ' ' Weakness and Fears "I return to the Mother's embrace." Inara, like most of the stagalla people, has very few weaknesses. There are few objects in this world that can penetrate her smooth, marbled skin, but it is vulnerable to high-impact explosions. This is often why she calls upon the Mother to strengthen her against attack. As for fears, she has but two. She already failed her husband Terminus in the war against the Magistrate, she now fears that she will pass on without being able to send him the proper death that she feels he truly deserves as a Warrior of the stagalla. Or worse yet, that were she to fall in battle, the Magistrate or even her allies would try to use their crystal magic to make her rise once more as was already done with Terminus. Her second fear and weakness is that of water. The sea is not a place for stagalla and she would much rather fight in the mountains. This has led to her having a strong mistrust of the ocean and those who come from it, like the Ancient One, Makoa. Despite her Oath to Valera, this also has led her to absolutely refuse to accompany the Resistance Navy. When the dread pirate Dredge attacked the Resistance ship bearing the Warder’s treasure, Inara was far from it stationed on land even though they felt they could have greatly used her help. This sometimes leads her fellow allies to doubt her resolve.